Auburn takes victory lap on Twitter after transfer commitment from Dylan Senda

Auburn football landed a big fish Sunday in the form of Northwestern transfer offensive lineman Dylan Senda, and they let everyone know. The Tigers Twitter account sent out a message shortly after Senda announced his commitment in the form of four emojis — an eagle, two eyeballs, a fish on a hook and a graph trending upward.

A member of the 2023 class, Senda was one of several Northwestern players to transfer following the firing of coach Pat Fitzgerald amid a hazing scandal. He was the Wildcats’ second-highest rated recruit, coming in as the No. 44 inside offensive lineman according to the On3 Industry Rating, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

🦅👀🎣📈

— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) July 31, 2023

Senda played all three offensive line positions in high school so brings versatility with him. He is one of five transfer offensive linemen in Auburn’s 2023 class along with Avery Jones (East Carolina), Gunner Britton (Western Kentucky), Dillon Wade (Tulsa) and Jaden Muskrat (Tulsa).

Senda wasn’t the only big win for Auburn this past week, however. The Tigers also landed five-star linebacker Demarcus Riddick in the 2024 class on Wednesday. Five-star receiver Perry Thompson followed suit by announcing his commitment to Auburn on Saturday.

All those additions hint at a brighter future for the Tigers following a 17-19 record over the past three seasons. Coach Hugh Freeze is preparing to enter his first year leading Auburn and already appears to be building toward something greater.

Time will tell how all of those players work out, but it’s certainly a good week to be an Auburn fan.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA transfer portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.